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Bigsby The Teacher

Filming Bigsby has been an amazing learning experience for me. This entire process has exposed me to so many talented individuals who were all more than happy to share their advice and experiences. And while there were certainly a handful of us less experienced filmmakers on set, we’ve all been great to collaborate and learn together. In this post I’ll be touching on some of those things that I have learned – from working with such helpful people and also from my own experiences.

Klumsy and Bigsby encounter.

Going into Bigsby was, at some degree, a daunting project for me. I’ve done very little camera operating in the past (two short videos, to be exact) and realistically I haven’t directed before this film. This made me a little nervous about what to expect and it made me wonder if I would be able to work efficiently with the other, more experienced crew members. I can happily admit that not only has the crew been extremely helpful, but I’ve learned so much on this project that I no longer feel completely clueless like I did on day one. Working with Fritz has taught me a tremendous amount, from more obvious things like what to keep in mind when writing a script, to more passive (yet equally as important) things like how to manage your own time and the time of all of your volunteers. I also found an unlimited supply of tips and tricks from Michael MacDonald on how to properly shoot, which angles to take, how many angles to take, and the list goes on (and on, and on). I even learned how to properly position shots from our amazing sound team, Mitch Murrant and John Bury.

I also learned a fair bit on my own just from being present and active on set. Things like how a set works, how important it is to work as a team, the ins and outs of the camera I was using, and how to stay productive and encourage said productivity with everybody. One great piece of advice with any creative team project like this is to get involved and stay involved on as many steps of the way as possible. It’s important to not be shy and to ask a lot of questions if need be – it’ll make you a more confident and helpful team member.

Team work in a cold, windy day shooting across Sydney.

The last part of the process is the editing. This is something that isn’t as new to me, but certainly is at such a large scale. Of course, knowing the software is a big step in how to edit (in my case, I’m using Sony Vegas), but organization is equally as important. It is impossible to work efficiently if all of your video and audio files are mixed up and disorganized. Thankfully, our sound team took lots of notes and were very proactive about this step.

All in all, filming Bigsby has been an amazing experience for me; I’ve gone from a complete amateur to someone who can comfortably direct a video. By working with such a great and resourceful team and asking a lot of questions, I was able to increase my confidence as a filmmaker greatly. A special thank you to Fritz Bishop for inviting me onto this project, John Bury for his innovation on set, Mitch Murrant for being an audio genius, Michael MacDonald for being so professional and generously helpful on set, and iCreate for making all of this possible. Now, time to apply everything I’ve learned and get back to editing!